Heavy work for Cat 730C Ejector Truck on English bypass

When Flannery Plant Hire was awarded work on the Norwich bypass project, they purchased a wide range of new 178 Caterpillar machines.

Caterpillar dealer 1413 Finning UK & Ireland supports construction of the Norwich Bypass, one of the UK’s largest road infrastructure projects, with a vast range of Caterpillar machines and advanced Caterpillar Production Management - CPM.  Known as the Northern Distributor Road, the project is managed by primary contractor Balfour Beatty, with P. Flannery Plant Hire as main earthworks contractor. Flannery’s new Caterpillar machines range from 5-50tonne excavators and the latest ADT’s, including the Cat 730C ejector truck which is fitted with CPM. The purchase of the ejector with CPM was firstly all about productivity and safety, as ejector trucks need not stop to lift the skip to tip material.

The Cat 730C ejector unit creates a safer working environment by displaying payload weight and status including external lights which automatically signal when target payload has been achieved.

The payload on the machine is shown on the in-cab monitor which enables operators to ensure the truck is not under or overloaded, which in turn optimises fuel burn per tonne on each cycle meaning the productivity of the machines are more efficient.

This information can be used by Balfour Beatty to provide the best possible carbon footprint on site as well as being able to see the impact of the fleet.

CPM tracks and measures data such as tonnes per load, tonnes per cycle and distance travelled per day. It also measures litres of fuel a machine burns per hour which gives the project a daily overview of progression.

No matter where the units are working on the new 20km dual carriageway, data can be sent and received in real time. For the team on site, this data is sent via VisionLink into the online portal where management and the Balfour Beatty team access it from any connected location. By combining CPM with additional data relating to the health of machines through VisionLink, potential issues with machines are more visible which results in a significant reduction in downtime.